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PROOF THAT COLUMBUS WAS 

BORN IN 145 1 : A NEW 

DOCUMENT 



HENRY VIGNAUD 



REPRINTED FROM THE 



g^medaw ^x^Uml §mm 



Vol. XII., No. 2 



JANUARY, 1907 



[keprinted from The American Historical Review, Vol. XII., No. 2, Jan., 1907. J 



PROOF THAT COLUMBUS WAS BORN IN 1451 : A 
NEW DOCUMENT 

It is well known that neither Columbus nor his first two biog- 
raphers, his son Ferdinand and Las Casas, have mentioned the 
date of his birth, though all three speak of his studies, his voy- 
ages, and his nautical experiences in a manner which leaves it to 
be supposed that his life was a long one and that he had spent much 
time in preparing himself for the discovery he was to make. It is 
on this account that particular interest attaches to the date of the 
birth of Columbus, and this explains why so much ink has been 
shed to clear up this obscure point. Columbus having left us only 
contradictory statements respecting his age at different periods of 
his life,^ while his two biographers have said nothing to enlighten 
us on the subject, criticism has been compelled to seek elsewhere 
for information, and has fortunately discovered in the notarial 
archives of Genoa and Savona, towns where Columbus spent his 
youth, documents which make up for the reticence of those from 
whom we had the right to expect authentic information on so im- 
portant a fact. 

These documents, dated from 1470 to 1473, supply indeed the 
material required for solving this problem. Unfortunately those 
who first studied them did so from a point of view which obscured 
rather than cleared up the question. 

Inasmuch as these papers — with one exception, and that was 
only discovered later than the others — do not mention in precise 
terms the age of Columbus, it was thought possible to fix it ap- 
proximatively from the nature of the deed in which mention was 
made of the future Admiral. Thus, after having ascertained that 
the Genoese legal code of the period recognized four different ma- 
jorities (those of sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, and twenty-five years, 
each one of which limited the minor's legal rights within certain 
defined restrictions), the deduction was drawn that, according to the 
purport of the deed to which Columbus was a party, he must neces- 
sarily have one or the other of the majorities admitted by the law. 
For instance, on August 26, 1472, Columbus, with the authorization 
of his parents, signs a deed whereby he renders himself responsible 

' They have all been quoted in our essay, The Real Birth-Date of Columbus 
(London, 1903), and in the third of our B.tudes Critiques sur la Vie de Colomb 
avant ses Decouvertes (Paris, 1905). 

(270) 



271 



H. Vignaud 



for a debt^; therefore, so we are told, he was not then twenty-five 
years of age, for, had he attained those years, he would not have 
required their permission ; consequently he was born less than 
twenty-five years before that date, in other words, after August 26, 

1447- 

Again, on August 7, 1473," Columbus authorizes his mother to 
consent to a sale which his father wishes to make ; this proves, so 
it is alleged, that he had attained then the great majority of twenty- 
five years, as otherwise he could not have given the said authoriza- 
tion, whence it follows that he was born before August 7, 1448.^ 
If Columbus was not twenty-five years of age on August 26, 1472, 
but was so on August 7, 1473, he was necessarily born between 
August 26, 1447, and August 7, 1448. 

Yet another calculation. On May 25, 1471,* Columbus was not 
twenty-five years of age, because on that date his mother legally 
binds herself without his intervention. On March 20, 1472,^ he 
witnesses a will ; therefore he had then attained the great majority, 
and consequently he was born between May 25, 1446, and March 
20, 1447." 

The error in these apparently very clear and simple demonstra- 
tions is that they are based on questionable data. It is not by any 
means clear that it was because he was a minor that Columbus re- 
quired the authorization of his parents in order to render himself 
liable for a debt in August, 1472.' It is not satisfactorily established 
that Columbus on August 7, 1473, intervened without the sanction 
of his father, for the very nature of the deed then in question pre- 
supposes in fact that sanction.' It does not follow from the fact 
that his mother on May 25, 1471, agreed to the sale of property 
under her marriage settlement without her son's consent that he 
was not then of a legal age to give it. In addition to the pointX 
being obscure in itself, Columbus may have been absent at the 
time. Finally, the fact that he witnessed a will on March 20, 1472, 

' Docitmeiiti relativi a Cristoforo Colombo^ no. 44, in Raccolta Colombiana, 
part II., vol. I, also in our Real Birth-Date, p. 18, and in our Etudes, p. 220. 

' Documenti, no. 51 ; Real Birth-Dale, p. 19; Btudes, p. 221. 

^ Desimoni, Quistioni Colombiane, in Raccolta, part II., vol. 3, p. 23. 

' Documenti, no. 38; Real Birth-Date, p. 15; £tiides, p. 219. 

'^ Documenti, no. 41 ; Real Birth-Date, p. 16; Etudes, p. 220. 

° Harrisse, Christophe Colomb, I. 227. 

'According to the Genoese law of 1414 this authorization was required at any 
age, so long as regular emancipation had not been granted. Desimoni, Quistioni, 
p. 33 ; R^i'l Birth-Date, p. 25 ; Etudes, p. 224. 

* See Real Birth-Dale. pp. 61-63, and Etudes, pp. 244-246. 



Gift. 
J. H. raiss.-ll. 

16 f 1307 



Proof that Cohiinbus was Born in 1451 272 

does not prove that he was then major, for it was perfectly legal 
in similar cases to act as witness although still a minor.' 

From the above brief observations, which are here merely indi- 
cated but which have been fully developed elsewhere, it may be seen 
that the data which have beer) employed to fix approximatively the 
age of Columbus at certain dates are wanting in consistency. If 
they were absolutely fixed and certain, the conclusions to be drawn 
from them would not be contradictory ; which, however, is the case, 
inasmuch as it follows from them that Columbus, who was not 
twenty-five years old on August 26, 1472, had already attained that 
age on March 20 of that same year. 

None of the documents which have been quoted in the above 
calculation mentions definitely the actual age of Columbus. But 
in 1887 one was discovered which gave this valuable information; 
the deed in question is the one bearing the date of October 31, 1470, 
wherein Columbus is described as then being over nineteen years 
of age. This document in fact completely destroyed all the fine 
quibbling which tended to prove that Columbus was born before 
such and such a date and after such and such another ; but, un- 
fortunately, those who had so exercised their ingenuity, instead of 
yielding to the force of the new evidence, sought only to make it 
fit in with their preconceived theories. The argument they adopted 
was the following: the deed of October 31, 1470, reads, " Christopher 
Columbus, son of Domenico, of more than nineteen years accom- 
plished " {" Christofforus de Columbo filius Dominici, major annis 
decemnovem ").- Well, then, this we are assured does not mean 
what it says: major annis decemnovem, more than nineteen years 
of age, or of nineteen years fully, or of nineteen years accomplished ; 
no, what this really means is : more than nineteen years of age but 
not yet twenty-five^ ; that is to say, that Columbus may then have 
been twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three, or twenty-four 
years of age at the date this deed was signed. All therefore that 
can be deduced from this deed, according to this argument, is that 
Columbus could not have been born before October 31, 1445, be- 
cause otherwise he must have been twenty-five years of age on Oc- 
tober 31, 1470, and consequently dispensed from requiring the au- 
thorization of his father ; or, that he could not have been born after 

' Harrisse, op. cit., I. 227. 

■ See the text in Documenti, no. 34, and here in the appendix. 

' " The expression used here means that Columbus had attained the majority 
of nineteen years, and not yet that of twenty-five." Harrisse, Christopher Colum- 
bus and the Bank of St. George (New York, i888), p. 89, note 4. See also 
Christophe Colomb devant I'Histoire by the same author (Paris, 1892), p. 65. 



2.73 ^- Vignaicd 

October 31, 1451, as in that case he would not have been more than 
nineteen years of age at the date of the aforesaid document. 

The error of this reasoning is so evident that it is simply astonish- 
ing that the argument could ever have been for a moment main- 
tained. Had it indeed been that the laws of Genoa recognized a 
particular majority of nineteen years (as they did in fact admit 
majorities of sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, and of twenty-five years), 
it might have been legitimate to argue that the phrase major minis 
decevuwvem meant what it is sought to read into it. But such is 
not the case, nor does any one claim that it is so ; on the contrary, 
all the authorities are agreed upon the point that the laws of Genoa 
make no mention of a majority of nineteen years. It follows there- 
fore, as clearly as day follows night, that if Columbus had then been 
twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three, or twenty-four years 
of age, instead of nineteen, the notary would have so stated. Why, 
otherwise, should he have hit upon nineteen years of age unless that 
was actually the age of Columbus?' 

We do not possess a single deed of the Genoese notaries of the 
time wherein mention of the age does not state the actual age of the 
individual mentioned therein. For instance, when one of these 
notaries writes in a deed, dated September 10, 1484, referring to 
Jacopo or Giacomo Colombo, " major annis sexdecim, juravit ", it 
is clear he wished to make evident that this younger brother of 
Columbus was then fully of sixteen years of age, because he adds 
that he has made him swear that such is the case. Had Jacopo been 

' It is curious to note that M. Desimoni, who may be considered as the in- 
ventor of the four-majorities theory, admits that the declaration of age is only 
a means of verifying the identity of the contracting parties. Qnistioni, p. 37. 
M. Ugo Assereto, who has studied this question from the legal point of view, 
makes the observation that when it was a question of verifying the fact that the 
contracting party had attained one of the legal majorities — the majority of nine- 
teen years, for instance, which conveys the right of undertaking the engagement 
stipulated in the deed — the formula usually employed runs : minor annis viginti- 
quinque major tamen annis decemocto (of less than twenty-five years but of more 
than eighteen years). M. Assereto explains that very seldom in notarial engage- 
ments is mention made of an age intermediate between two majorities, such as 
those of eighteen and twenty-five years, and that when it does take place " it is to 
bring into prominence that the contracting party being older than eighteen, 
the age strictly required to validate his action, should for a greater reason be 
presumed to have a knowledge of the importance of the engagements he is 
undertaking ". This judicious critic concludes, as we have ourselves done, that 
every time when " in a notarial deed it is stipulated that one of the contracting 
parties is older than nineteen, is older than twenty, is older than etc, we may 
be sure that he is not yet twenty, or twenty-one, etc., for, were it otherwise, there 
would have been every reason for mentioning the second age rather than the 
first." " La Data della Nascita di Colombo ", in Giornale Storico e Letterario 
della Liguria, La Spezia, January-February, 1904, pp. 6-7. 



I 



Proof that Columbus was Born in i-^S^ -7 A 

then of a dififerent age, he would not have sworn he was at that 
time sixteen.' The deed of 1508, wherein Zerega, indicating his 
age, sa3's " maggiore di quarant'anni ",- and the one in which 
Pantalino Bavarello, the son of Cohimbus's sister, owns to twenty- 
seven years ^ have exactly the same bearing. 

This was the state of the question when the author of these lines 
published, in 1903, his essay. The Real Birth-Date of Columbus: 
1451,* an essay reproduced later in French in our Etudes Critiques,^ 
wherein are set forth at length the views here summarily stated, 
with the texts bearing thereon ; whence it may be gathered that the 
deed of October, 1470, gives the exact age Columbus then had ; and 
whereby his birth is determined as coming between October 31, 1450, 
and October 31, 1451.^ 

But when we made this demonstration the only document then 
known which could efficiently support our argument was the one 
of 1470, and, as Columbus was still a minor in 1470, those who 
clung to the four-majorities theory had still a pretense for arguing 

' Docuinenti, no. 68. MM. Desimoni and Lollis both admit that this deed 
signifies that Jacopo was then a little over sixteen years of age. 

■ M. Desimoni, who himself gives this example, refers also to the mention 
of the phrase major annorum XXII. which he has found, and which, according 
to him, merely indicates the actual age because there existed no legal majorities 
of forty and of twenty-two years. Quistioni, p. 37. 

^ Docnmenii, no. iii. 

* A Critical Study of the Various Dates assigned to the Birth of Christopher 
Columbus. The Real Date 1451. With a Bibliography of the Question (London, 
Henry Stevens, Son, and Stiles, 1903). 

^£tiides Critiques sur la Vie de Colomb avant ses Dccouvertes (Paris, Welter, 
'905. pp. 544)- This volume, as the colophon shows, left the printer on January 
30, igos- 

6 We think it only right to repeat here, as we have already stated elsewhere, 
that we were not the first to seize the real significance of this document. Already 
in 1892 Mr. Richard Davey had called attention to it (The National Review, Lon- 
don. October, 1892, pp. 219, 222) ; and in that same year M. Asensio, in discussing 
it, had implicitly admitted that it must be construed as we have construed it, 
though he raised the difficulty that the Christofforus de Columbo Alius Dominici 
of the deed in question may not have been our Columbus (Cristobal Colon, 
Barcelona, [1891], L 216). In 1900 M. Gonzalez de la Rosa boldly declared 
to the Americanist Congress that it followed from this document that Columbus 
was born in 1451 ; but we are the first who subjected this notarial act to a de- 
tailed critical examination, and who showed that it really means that Columbus 
had fully accomplished nineteen years of life in 147°- In 1904. about a year after 
the publication of our English memoir on this point, M. Assereto repeated the 
same demonstration in the article quoted below ; and, inasmuch as he does not 
refer to us, we must believe he had not seen our work, although it raised some 
discussion at the time. Our argument is summed up in pages 95-101 in the English 
volume and in pages 26-63 ■" the French. In 1902, in our Toscanelli and Colum- 
bus (London, Sands and Company), pp. 262-263, we had already given the re- 
sult of our studies on this point. 



2 75 H- Vignaud 

that the notary, in recording the fully nineteen years of Columbus, 
wished only to indicate thereby that he had already passed the legal 
majority of eighteen years, without, however, having yet attained 
the majority of twenty-five. To-day the position is altered. An- 
other document has been discovered which also gives the age of 
Columbus ; but this later discovery no longer lends itself to the sup- 
port of the meaning it was sought to give to the deed of October 
31, 1470. 

This deed, which M. Assereto had the good fortune to find 
among the notarial archives of Genoa, and which he made public 
in February, 1904, ' is dated August 25, 1479, and contains a deposi- 
tion made by Columbus (who was then fixed at Lisbon but was 
passing through Genoa) in which he states that he was at that 
time aged about twenty-seven years. ^ Here, at any rate, there can 
be no misunderstanding. It is the notary himself who asks Colum- 
bus what his age may be and who writes down his reply, wherein 
the word major, the origin of so many difficulties, does not occur, 
thus closing the door to all ambiguity that might have arisen from 
the expression " major of twenty-seven years " ; which in itself, how- 
ever, could scarcely have led to confusion, inasmuch as the legisla- 
tion of the period nowhere recognizes' a later majority than that of 
twenty-five. 

When therefore Columbus said he was twenty-seven }ears of age 
or thereabouts, he could have meant to say only what the phrase 
itself indicates, that he _was either a little more or a little less than 
the age indicated ; and this in the first case would fix his birth 
toward the end of 145 1, and in the second toward the beginning of 
1452. But the point which is here left in doubt is fortunately cleared 
up by the deed of 1470, which demonstrates that it is in the first 
sense that we must interpret the declaration of Columbus ; for 
according to the wording of that document he was over nineteen 
years of age on October 31, 1470, which would have been impossible 
if on August 25, 1479, l''s had not passed his twenty-seventh year.' 

The two deeds thus complete one another and enable us to cir- 

' Ugo Assereto, " La Data della Nascita di Colombo accertata da un Docu- 
mento Nuevo ", Giornale Storico e Letterario della Liguria, January-February, 
1904. 

2 " Interrogatus quottannis est . . . Respondit quod est etatis annorum viginti 
septem vel circa." (" Being asked what was his age ... he replied that he was 
twenty-seven or thereabouts ".) See the deed in the appendix. 

" M. Assereto remarks, on this point, that according to custom the witness 
mentioned the number of years he had accomplished already, so that when Colum- 
bus declares he is twenty-seven or thereabouts he intends to convey that he was 
over twenty-seven but not yet twenty-eight years of age. Op. cit., p. 8. 



Proof that Columbus zvas Born in i^^i 276 

cumscribe within closer limits the period within which Columbus 
must have been born. Quite clearly, if on October 31, 1470, he 
was more than nineteen years old, and if on August 25, 1479, he 
was more than twenty-seven and less than twenty-eight, he must 
first have seen the light of day within the two months and five days 
comprised between Aurust 26 and October 31, 1451. ' 

The deed of 1479 therefore definitely settles the question of the 
date of the birth of Columbus. From whatever point of view we 
may consider the matter, it is impossible to deny the conclusion to 
which this deed leads when it is placed beside the deed of 1470, and 
we may now set forth with full assurance that it was only during 
either the month of September or that of October, 1451, that 
Columbus was born. 

Without dwelling upon this point, it is well to observe that this 
important date in the life of Columbus is not the only point which 
modern criticism has successfully determined. Since 1892, thanks 
to Salvagnini's researches, we also know that it was only in 1476 
that Columbus first landed in Portugal, and to this information we 
may now add that he was then twenty-five years of age. We know 
also from his own notes and from Las Casas that it was in the be- 
ginning of 1485 that he passed into Spain, and we have the proof 
that he quitted no more the Spanish peninsula until he set sail in 
1492 from the port of Palos. 

All these facts, henceforth indisputable, are very suggestive; 
but this is not the occasion to point out the conclusions which may 
be drawn from them, and we shall merely ask the careful and un- 
prejudiced reader if they can be reconciled with Columbus's re- 
peated assertions that he had sailed for twenty-three years-; that he 
had crossed all the known seas'; and that for over forty years he had 
studied the secrets of nature.* We shall furthermore ask him if it 
be not permitted to say from all this that Columbus had a personal 
interest in pretending to be older than he was, and also if we do not 
find here a natural explanation of tlie fact, otherwise so extra- 
ordinary, that he who was so prolix and so fond of talking about 
himself never mentioned the date of his birth ; that all his state- 
ments bearing upon his age are contradictory ; that his son who 

' As we do not wish to expose ourselves to the reproach of failing to render 
to M. Assereto the credit due to him, we think it right to say that he has drawn 
the same conclusions as we have ourselves from the two deeds in question ; in- 
deed no other alternative was possible. Ihid. 

2 The Log-Book. December 21. 1492. 

' Ihid. 

* Letter of 1501 quoted by Ferdinand Columbus, Historie (Venice, 1571), p. 8, 
and by Las Casas, Historia (Madrid, 1875-1876), L, chap. 3, p. 47. 



2 77 ^- VignO'Ud 

wrote his life maintains silence on this point; and that Las Casas, 
who possessed all the family papers and who was personally ac- 
quainted with the principal members of the Columbus family, also 
refrains from saying a word upon the subject. 

The document discovered by M. Assereto also gives some new 
information upon Columbus. We find therein an authentic verifica- 
tion, the first we possess, that he was in Lisbon in July, 1478, and 
was having business transactions with that same Paulo di Negro 
who later appears in his will ; that at this period he made a commer- 
cial voyage to Madeira, a place it was not known for certain that he 
had visited ; that the following year he was at Genoa, whither it was 
not known he had returned, and where he was then still considered 
to be a citizen of that town, which leads to the supposition that he 
was still unmarried in August, 1479, and had not yet in a perma- 
nent manner fixed himself in Portugal, for Las Casas tells us that 
his marriage and settling down in that country made him to be 
looked upon as a Portuguese. Henry Vignaud. 

Appendix 
We give below the essential passages of the two deeds of 1470 
and 1479. The other portions of these documents, which are both 
of considerable length, have no bearing on the question under dis- 
cussion. 

L Christopher Columbus, aged nineteen full years, zmth the author- 
isation of his father Domenico admits that he is the debtor of 
Pietro Bcllesio, Genoa, October jr, 1470} 

In nomine Domini, amen. Christofforus de Columbo filius Dominici, 
major annis decemnovem, et in presentia, auctoritate, consilio et con- 
sensu dicti Dominici ejus patris presentis et autorizantis, sponte et ex 
ejus certa scientia et non per aliquem errorem juris vel facti, confessus 
fuit et in veritate publice recognovit Petro Belexio de Portu Mauricio, 
filio Francisci, present!, se eidem dare et solvere debere libras quad- 
raginta octo, soldos tresdecim et denarios sex Janue; et sunt pro resto 
vinorum eidem Christofforo et dicto Dominico venditorum et consigna- 
torum per dictum Petrum. 

IL Deposition made by Columbus in a lawsuit brought by Ludovico 
Centurione against Paulo di Negro, Genoa, August 25, 1479-^ 
This deposition is preceded by a request made by Ludovico on 

August 23, 1479, for the hearing of his witnesses. Ludovico ex- 

' From the Notarial Archives of Nicole Raggio, file 2, a. 1470, n. 905. First 
published by Staglieno in Giornale Ligustico of 1887, p. 259, and reproduced in 
Documenti of the Raccolta Colombiana, part II., vol. i, no. 34- 

= Notarial Archives of Ventimiglia, file 2 (1474-1505), no. 266. Published 
by M. Ugo Assereto in Giornale Storico e Letterario delta Liguria, January- 
February, 1904. 



Proof that Columbus was Born in T^§i 278 

plains that he desires to prove by witnesses who are about to start 
on a long voyage that the preceding year Paulo di Negro, to whom 
he had supplied money for the purchase of a consignment of sugar 
at Madeira, had sent Columbus to that island for that purpose, but 
that Columbus did not receive the full remittance and consequently 
was unable to complete the purchase. 

This request was notified the same day to Paulo di Negro, and 
the day but one following Christopher Columbus, a citizen of Genoa 
(Christoffonis dc Cohimbo civis janiic), says the notary, appeared 
and was heard. He declared on oath that in the month of July 
of the preceding year he was at Lisbon with Paulo di Negro, who 
commissioned him to purchase on his account at Madeira 2,500 
arrobas of sugar : that Paulo handed him a portion of the funds 
necessary for this purchase and forwarded to him another portion 
at Madeira, where he (Columbus) had contracted to buv the re- 
quired amount of sugar, but that, the balance of the amount not 
having been remitted, when the Portuguese captain sent bv Paulo 
di Negro to fetch the sugar arrived, the sellers who had sold for 
cash down refused to allow the goods to be shipped : 

Ejus juramento corporaliter tactis scripturis de veritate dicenda et 
testificanda dixit se tantum scire de contentis intitulo videlicet quod 
Veritas fuit et est quod cum anno proxime preterito de mense Julii ipse 
testis et dictus Paulus essent in loco Ulisbone transmissus fuit ipse testis 
per eumdeni Paulum ad insulam Amaderie cause emendi rubas duomilia 
quadringentas sucarorum in plus, cui quidem testi dacti ex tunc fuerunt 
per dictum Paulum vel alium pro eo occaxione predicta regales centum 
quindecim milia et inde dum ipse testis esset in dicta insula Amaderie, 
etiam transmissi fuerunt ipse testi per eumdem Paulum seu alium pro eo 
occaxione premissa usque ad summam regalium tre centum duodecim 
milia vel circa computatis dictis regalibus centum quindecim milia, et 
hoc usque ad illud tempus quo ad dictam insulam apulit navigium patron- 
isatum per Ferdinandum Palensium portugalensem in et super quo 
navigio onerari debetat dicta sucarorum quantitas, que tamen onerari 
tunc non potuit licet empta et incaparata antea fuisset per ipsum testem, 
licet tamen presentialiter proprie et ad punctum testificare non possit, 
que pars dictorum sucarorum tunc empta et per eumdem testem in- 
caparata fuisset quia non habet ejus librum in quo distincte omnia con- 
tinentur et scripta sunt et ad quern se reffert. Verum tempore apulsus 
dicti navigii sucara ipsa empta et incaparata per ipsum testem ut supra 
in totum habere non potuit defectu pecunie ipsi testi non transmisse per 
dictum Paulum pro ipsorum sucarorum solucione et ea pars que con- 
signata fuerat ipsi testi per venditores licet non solupta aplicato dicto 
navilio ab eis minabatur ut ilia vendi facerent damno et interesse ipsius 
testis attento quod eorum debitum et solucionem non faciebat, quibus ex 
causis dicta sucarorum quantitas in et super dicto navigio onerari non 
potuit. 



2 79 ^- Vignaud 

The remainder of the deposition consists of Columbus's repHes 
to a series of questions relative to the affair. To the last questions 
he replies that he is leaving for Lisbon next day, that he is about 
twenty-seven years of age, that he was carrying away with him 
a little over one hundred florins, and that he sincerely hoped the 
party who was in the right would win : 

Interrogatus si est de proximo recessurus respondit sic, die crastino 
de mane pro Ulisbona. 

Interrogatus quottannis est quantum habet in bonis et quam partem 
vellet obtinere. 

Respondit quod est etatis annorum viginti septem vel circa, habet 
florenos centum et ultra et vellet obtinere jus habentem. 

Actum Janue in contracta santi siri videlicet in scagno dicti Lodixii 
anno dominice nativitatis millesimo quadringentesimo septuagesimo nono 
indicione undecima Juxta morem Janue die mercurii vigesima quinta 
August! hora vigesima quarta paulo plus presentibus Johanne Baptista 
de Cruce qm. Jeronimi et Jacobo Sclavina Bernardi civibus Janue testi- 
bus ad premissa vocatis specialiter et rogatis. 



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